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I may get flamed for this, but I think the whole situation here is terrible.

I think Pearl's customer service is excellent (especially Gene), but on this matter they scored an epic failure. I concede that the oldest examples of these drums are now 24 years old but this metal fatigue has been an issue for at least 10 years.

How old is your B/MLX? I bought mine new in 1995 and had a lug break in 2005. 10 years for the fittings on professional level drums?!!??!! Come on!

My drums are close to "as new" condition, have always been kept in an even temperature environment and the drum in question (my 16" floor tom) was the least used of my kit; I'd quite literally used it no more than 10 times!

Don't forget, these kits weren't cheap... they were professional sets.

Whilst Pearl may think it helpful that Masters lugs (and others) fit the hole spacing, it's a cop out because the replacement work costs at least what the kit's worth!

To not offer a massive discount in the face of this embarrassing design fault on an exchange basis (send your broken lugs to Pearl and they sell you Masters lugs at a discounted price) is like a slap in the face. An alternative and still appropriate course of action would be to give the casting moulds for these lugs to another company and subsidise their production. I can't imagine any of this happening, "sorry, these drums are up to 24 years old now".

Like others have said, this affected Custom Z drums too... even more expensive than MLX / BLX kits. And yet the supposedly cheaper 3-piece lookalike lugs on the Export kits of the same era soldier on valiantly!

If I'm wrong on any of this then please, by all means, correct me.

Chris

I do agree with you on this and it isn't just a 1980s issue as the Reference snare lugs have had to be re-designed as they were suffering from early failure too. That and the issue with the quality of some of the glitter finishes and cracking do lead you to believe that Pearl have occasional QC problems.

However it would be unfair to only blame Pearl for this. Most manufacturers have one or two rogue parts or finishes on their high end drums. Remo hardware was notorious for stripping threads, there were the Premier oval tom holder brackets which have nearly all cracked now and even Sonor had BD legs that start slipping after long term use on the Phonic/Lite/Signature series, the use of the little grub screws on the 2 legged DW hihat stands, the completely useless round single piccolo lugs that Tama used etc etc and there are many other examples.

I do think it is beholden on companies to at least own up to the problem though and try to offer some help though.

I do think it is beholden on companies to at least own up to the problem though and try to offer some help though.

Quite. I'm not saying Pearl should necessarily dish out free lugs (although I wouldn't complain if they did) but I've found it shocking that, for years, we've just been told that the CL-100 Masters lugs fit the hole spacing!

I view that as a failure to take responsibility for the situation. In turn, it's neglectful of loyal customers and akin to saying "yes, those lugs are duff, but feel free to spend the equivalent of your kit's current value on more Pearl products to fix it".

So, in summary, my issue is that (admittedly some years ago) many of us paid good money for a high end set of drums. We don't expect them to become worthless during our period of ownership due to a manufacturing defect; especially so when, in a lot of cases, they've been very well looked after.

I got mine in the mail a couple days ago, and held up to the BLX lug they're EXACTLY THE SAME! haha, they blend in perfectly, only difference is that they've got the overlap because of being 3 pieces. Standing 5 feet away no one would know the difference! just waiting on the 13" lugs from Chris (sippy), then I'm gunna set her up.

I got mine in the mail a couple days ago, and held up to the BLX lug they're EXACTLY THE SAME! haha, they blend in perfectly, only difference is that they've got the overlap because of being 3 pieces. Standing 5 feet away no one would know the difference! just waiting on the 13" lugs from Chris (sippy), then I'm gunna set her up.